


A Sense Of Attachment

by griesly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Arachnophobia, Body Horror, Claustrophobia, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Extremely Dubious Consent, Force-Sensitive Giant Spiders, M/M, No actual mpreg, Oviposition, Partial Mind Control, Rough Sex, Slime, Tentacles, Xenophilia, hux is not a good person, mpreg fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-30 02:45:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11454354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/griesly/pseuds/griesly
Summary: A mission for Snoke goes a bit off the rails, but Hux makes certain everyone gets what they want.(See end notes for details on the dubious consent warning.)





	A Sense Of Attachment

  


 

“This was a terrible idea,” Hux complained.

Kylo turned to regard him over one shoulder, and Hux was somehow certain that behind the mask lived a withering glare. “Are you questioning the wisdom of our Supreme Leader?”

“Oh, get over yourself,” Hux sneered. “You’re just as miserable down here as I am.” Kylo made a low sound, exiting his metal snout in a rumble. Hux took it for grudging agreement.

A series of openings in the volcanic rock branched out before them, the floor of the cave moist and slick beneath Hux’s boots. It was dark, and damp, and worst of all, damnably hot. He found himself grateful for the potentially sentient mold colony that washed the walls in a dim green light.

“Where now?” Hux asked with a sigh. Without bothering to answer, Kylo made a sharp turn to the left and picked a narrow descending passage. _Wonderful_ , Hux thought. Farther down. That was an excellent development.

An odd arrhythmic tapping followed them into the tunnel, and Hux imagined a larger and more comfortable cavern where drops of cool water dripped down from the ceiling. A warm gust of air rushed past, sending a trickle of sweat down his temple and onto his cheek. Hux shifted the large rectangular case he carried out in front of him as the walls closed in on either side. Having lost sight of Kylo around a bend, Hux raised his voice and heard it echo back from the pitted and pockmarked stone. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?”

There was no answer from the dark, and so he kept moving until he thought he’d have to turn back, until he thought he’d never catch another good breath again. He knew it was ridiculous, knew the walls weren’t actually pulsing around him, trying to squeeze out all the air. But knowing and feeling were two entirely different things, at least a kilometre below the surface of a small frozen moon. Hux took a deep breath of stagnant air as the passage opened back up just enough to move freely again.

If it weren’t for this damnable crate, Hux thought. If he weren’t reduced to the role of pack mule - granted, a dangerous pack mule, but still a mule - if he weren’t stuck lugging the giant incubator around, he might have made a bit more progress. As it was, he shuffled the plastisteel case into more and more awkward positions as Kylo led him deeper into the moon’s crust.

 _You’re loyal_ , Hux reminded himself. Right now that means putting one foot in front of the -

Kylo stopped so abruptly that Hux nearly ran into him. The crate slipped down and collided with his knee, his palms slick with condensation. The rocks in this part of the cave were covered in a thick sort of slime, and he nearly lost his footing while juggling his cargo. “What?” Hux snapped in irritation. “What is it?”

“We’re here,” Kylo said.

“Here?” Hux questioned, peering into the darkness when no further explanation seemed to be forthcoming.

“Her lair,” Kylo explained. A hideous squelching issued forth from the shadows, followed by a series of sharp clicks, and Hux was certain it was the most disturbing sound he had ever heard. If they were _here_ , Hux would absolutely prefer to be anywhere else.

“Her?” Hux asked, his voice gone a bit thin.

“The broodmother,” Kylo answered, and the word made something quiver uncomfortably in his stomach. The sharp staccato rhythm started up again as something shifted behind them, propelling Hux forward.

“Fine, then, that’s - that’s fine, good.” Hux stammered. “Get on with it, then.” He gestured broadly with the crate in a forward arc. He wasn’t used to feeling anxious, and he certainly wasn’t enjoying it.

“Get on with what?” Kylo asked, and though it didn’t translate through the filter, Hux knew he was being mocked.

“With killing her!” Hux blurted out in exasperation. “So we can stuff this damn box full of her eggs and get the hell out of this deathtrap.”

“You seem...uncomfortable.” Kylo observed, and Hux was five seconds from using the incubator to put a new dent in that stupid mask. 

“I am tired,” Hux dissembled. There were more than enough reasons for him to hate this little expedition, most of which did not involve whatever sort of clacking insects were marking their progress. “I am damp, I am overwarm, and I am done being your beast of burden. You’re carrying this damn thing all the way back up.”

Raising his hands to the sides of his helmet, Kylo lifted it up and shook out his wet hair like a dog. Hux stepped back with a noise of disgust as drops of Kylo’s sweat landed in all sorts of unfortunate places, like his lips. Hux automatically licked them off before realizing what he’d done, and felt properly sick about it.

“I’m not planning on killing her,” Kylo said, and Hux was certain he hadn’t heard correctly.

“You’re not -- what?” It didn’t actually process.

“She doesn’t mind,” Kylo said, as if that explained anything.

“Doesn’t -?” Hux sat down the crate as something skittered past him in the dark. He turned, blaster drawn in a split second, only to find nothing at which to aim. One shadow looked very much like another in the pale green luminescence. Kylo was looking straight ahead, into what felt like a large, cavernous opening in the rock. A slight current of wind stirred against his skin while a sense of foreboding settled into his bones.

“She wants us to take them.” Kylo continued, his voice oddly absent of inflection.

If Hux saw the man without his mask, he was typically furious and ranting, all too often in Hux’s quarters after barging in unannounced. He nearly always brushed his fingers over the too-smooth stretch of skin where a lightsaber had left its mark. Hux had seen it nearly healed when Kylo left the Finalizer for his training, only to see it reopened, raw, and gleaming when he returned.

Now, he stared into the unyielding dark, head slightly tilted to one side, as though listening. His hands hung motionless at his sides. He was still.

“So she just offered them up,” Hux questioned slowly, his disbelief at the situation growing. He grudgingly accepted that Kylo could hear and sense things that he could not, but communing with some sort of subterranean egg-laying beast was a new development. “No strings attached?”  

“Yes, Hux.” Kylo answered. Hux realized he hadn’t seen the man blink since removing his helmet. He knew what to do with Kylo when he was angry, but this? This was a new side to the knight that Hux really did not want to puzzle out in a dark, dank cavern full of things he could hear but not see.

“Right, sure,” Hux said, shoving the crate at Kylo’s midsection. “You can just take this, then, and go fill it up with all those eggs she wants to give us, and I’ll guard our path back.” Kylo didn’t move. Hux tried once again, shoving the incubator at Kylo’s chest with a bit more force.

This time, Kylo blinked. Hux heard the ripple of water followed by the splash of his cloak as he moved forward, bypassing the box entirely. “Dammit,” Hux cursed, setting the incubator down on the first outcropping of rock he could find. He could make out the pool of water filling the center of the cavern by the clouds of steam that rose from its surface. Kylo’s figure eclipsed his view of the opposite wall, growing smaller the farther he traveled.

Pushing two buttons to either side of the case, Hux popped the lid to examine its contents. The cover opened with a slight creak, and he furrowed his brow. The orange light pods lining the walls remained dark. A few experimental taps on the control panel gave no result. Glancing back into the cavern, Hux struggled to make out Kylo’s form near some sort of structure at the far end of the space. That awful squelching sounded again, louder now that he was closer to its source. Hux shuddered and tried not to think about the accompanying shuffle of something heavy against the rock.

A sudden, loud tapping echoed from just behind him, and Hux whirled, knocking the crate into the pool with a splash. He gripped the stone in a panic, sharp edges scraping against his skin through the uniform. A gigantic creature hovered above him, its many segmented legs clacking loudly against the surrounding rock.

Too many legs, Hux thought. Were those pincers? A round head bobbed and rotated on a long, narrow neck and Hux felt certain he was done for. Just as suddenly as it appeared, Hux saw the creature wrenched sideways and hurled across to the room to land with a sickening crunch. Only then did he remember the blaster at his side, the blaster he had nearly fired only a few minutes before.

Hux brutally suppressed a shiver. _Spiders_. Of all the mysterious and awful things Snoke could have sent them to fetch, why did it have to be giant spiders? Because you failed, his brain supplied. You failed, and now you’re serving out the time you have left as a pack mule.   

Picking himself up, Hux turned to see Kylo with his arm outstretched, his palm facing the pile of cracked chitin that could no longer bite his head clean off. He still faced away from Hux, his attention focused elsewhere. _Maybe he’s found the eggs_ , Hux thought, and then _oh, shit_. The lid of the crate had come off its hinges when it struck the rock, and now floated some distance away in the pool. Tiny sparks jumped and singed the inside walls where it lay on the ground, thoroughly beyond repair.

There was nothing for it. They’d come all this way to a barren lump of rock cored through with  nasty tunnels and now that they’d finally found what they were after, Hux was going to have to do it all over again. Without benefit of Kylo’s direction sense, as he seemed disinclined to move from where he knelt in the waist-deep water. And that was assuming the spare incubators he’d packed in the shuttle were more functional than this piece of junk.

Wait. Hux had to look again to make sure his first observation was correct. Yes, the knight was kneeling before a long, flat protrusion of rock above which was carved a shadowy recess. Something shimmered in the depths, writhing, and Hux realized with a sort of gathering horror just what he might be seeing.

It dangled from within the cove like a ball of hair pulled up from out the drain. A mass of uneven strands brushed gently across the pile of quivering, bulbous objects below. Reflected bioluminescence on the fat, wet tendrils lent the scene an eerie realism that Hux wasn’t prepared to process. He had much preferred the dark before his eyes adjusted, when he couldn't make out anything at all.

He knew he should move closer, knew he had to tell Kylo that the incubator was broken, but Hux couldn’t find it in him to take a single step. “Ren,” he called out, only to realize he’d whispered. He tried again. “Ren,” and this time the words shoved out past his tongue to echo back at him from the walls. The knight didn’t move. Hux clenched his fists and willed his feet to cooperate. One foot in front of the other. Loyal.

Something clacked and slid on the rock beside him and Hux was off like a shot. Uncomfortably warm water soaked through his pants and pooled in his boots with each step, but he was moving, and quickly. He reached Kylo’s side just as one long, spindly appendage unfolded from the alcove above, ending in a wicked point. It raked slowly across the surface of the eggs, nudging one forward to roll onto the horizontal slab. The gelatinous ovoid wobbled back and forth before them, coated in a layer of pungent ooze.

Hux was glad he hadn’t eaten anything in hours. Kylo reached out one gloved hand and stroked the egg along its length. His eyes were half-shut, heavy lidded, as he tilted his head in consideration.  

“What does he want them for, anyway?” Hux asked, watching Kyo’s seeming communion with the alien goo. He’d asked the question before, but gotten no response. After coming all this way, staring down some sort of tentacled spider queen, and submerging himself in its filthy underground cess pit, Hux felt that he deserved an answer.

“Their resonance,” Kylo replied. “There is a fragment from an ancient Sith weapon at this planetoid’s core.”  

“At it’s core?” Hux said, his eyes narrowing. “I don’t think you understand how planets work.”

“It formed when the ship transporting the weapon crashed into Galthrak III, launching a fragment into space that became this orbital body.”

“It would have taken millions of years to cool down enough to even form a crust, much less a viable atmosphere. Do you hear yourself right now?” Kylo turned to regard him with a level stare. Hux sighed. “Fine, there’s an ancient Sith weapon.”

“It has guided the evolution of these creatures,” Kylo continued. “They are attuned to the Dark Side at a cellular level.”

“At a -” Hux threw up his hands. “You know he’s just fucking with you, right? He’s fucking with us.”

Kylo didn’t so much as blink. “It doesn’t matter if you believe the legend or not.”

“Well that’s fortunate,” Hux said, at last earning himself a glare.

“What matters is that we secure as many ovum as possible and transport them safely where he commands.”

“About that,” Hux said nervously, running a hand through his hair. _Ovum_. Pretentious ass. “The incubator, it’s ah -- it’s broken.”  

“I know,” Kylo said with a dismissive wave of one hand.

“You know.” Hux parroted back. “Right, of course. You stay here with your new girlfriend, I’m going to go back and get another one,” he said, turning halfway around before Kylo spoke again.

“It won’t work,” he advised.

“I think I can find my way to the ship and back just fine,” Hux lied, a bit testily.

“The other incubators,” Kylo clarified. “They won’t work.”

“Why the hell not?” Frustration wasn’t a good look on him, but Hux couldn’t keep it down any longer. The entire situation had moved beyond ridiculous and squarely into nightmare territory. At least he could wake up from bad dreams. “All three of them worked just fine when I requisitioned them from R&D, I checked them myself!”

“Your landing skills leave much to be desired,” Kylo deadpanned, and Hux felt a vein twitch in his forehead. They’d come in a bit hot, sure, but the moon’s surface was craggy and unforgiving. Hux gave himself an awful lot of credit just for sticking any sort of landing at all.

“You know, if you hadn’t been too busy meditating to pilot the shuttle yourself, we might -” Hux broke off, not really wanting to admit to having inferior piloting skills. “So you knew they were all broken?” he fumed. “You led us all the way down here for nothing?”

“Not for nothing,” Kylo said with an infuriating shrug.

“Please, be more vague.”

“We can still complete our mission, General.” Kylo still didn’t look back at him as he spoke, and the hypnotic phrasing was really beginning to get under Hux’s skin. “I'm prepared to make certain alterations to the plan.”

“Oh, did we have a plan?” Hux sniffed. “Forget what Snoke wants with the eggs, why did he send me to this hell hole with you in the first place? I have underlings for this.”

Kylo actually had the nerve to smile. Barely. Just a sardonic little quirk of his lips that Hux could see from the side. “There are some responsibilities even you can't delegate.”

“No,” Hux said irritably, not sure if he was arguing or agreeing with the knight. “Commanding my ship? Building a superweapon from the plans up? _Those_ are responsibilities I cannot delegate. But this? This is beneath me.” He shifted his weight, crossing his arms to avoid idly brushing away imagined arachnids. “And disgusting. It’s just - gross.”

“We can’t let them get cold,” Kylo continued as though Hux hadn’t spoken, and it took Hux a moment to follow.

“I’m not sure how you’re planning on avoiding that,” he said. “In case you failed to notice, it’s freezing up there.”

“I’m going to carry them,” Kylo said. Hux narrowed his eyes.  

“Your optimism on that score seems unfounded,” he said, knowing full well he would be ignored. “It took us half the day to find these caves. Even under all your ridiculous layers, they’ll never survive the trip back to the shuttle.”

“I don’t mean like that,” Kylo replied, as casual as if he were discussing the weather. “I’m going to carry them as she would. Inside me.”

Several seconds passed in silence before Hux could force a sound from his throat. When he managed to open his mouth, his protest came out in a yelp. “Are you  - have you gone mad? Inside - ?” Now _he’s_ fucking with you, Hux thought, the cogs in his mind having ground to a shuddering halt.

“Possibly,” Kylo answered, looking up at the broodmother where she hung suspended, tentacles coiling up and unwinding back down to caress the eggs. “It’s no matter.”

“The hell it isn’t,” Hux argued, now hopelessly lost. “You can’t - unless you’re hiding some sort of reptomammal pouch somewhere, and I seriously hope you’re not, I have no - _you_ have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Don’t I?” Kylo turned his head to regard Hux with a maddening sense of calm. Hux blinked, and blinked again. It began to occur to him just what the man could mean, and once it did -

Oh, _hells_.

“So help me, Ren, if you tell me you’ve done this sort of thing before, I’ll -” Hux couldn’t finish the threat. It was too absurd. He gave up mid-gesture, arms falling limply at his sides. “In all the time you've been under my command -”

“I've never been under your command,” Kylo interrupted.

Hux sighed. “Fine, in all the time you've taken up valuable space on my ship, this is the most ridiculous, most idiotic thing you've ever suggested.”

“I don’t see that we have any other option,” Kylo reasoned. “Unless you’d like to carry them.” His lips turned back up in that same infuriating smirk, and Hux felt the mocking tone wrap around him like a wet blanket.

“Absolutely not!” Hux said. “That’s disgusting. You’re disgusting!” Hux reached out for the egg still rocking back and forth on the stone slab and held it up just past the end of Kylo’s nose. “Look at what you’re suggesting stuffing inside yourself,” Hux said, stepping forward to see Kylo’s reaction. The egg gave a twitch and Hux dropped it into the steaming water below with a surprised sound. A low rumble issued from above his head, and the queen’s tentacles began to writhe.

“You would risk failing Supreme Leader?” Kylo asked. “Again?”

Hux felt as if he’d swallowed a stone, cold and heavy in the pit of his stomach. “No,” he said hastily, looking away. “No, I -”  

“Then won’t you help me?” Kylo asked, a plea that drew Hux’s gaze back up. Kylo’s eyes had gone soft, almost glowing in the watery light.

“Help?” he echoed stupidly. The stubborn knight had never once asked for his help before, and it deepened Hux’s suspicion that something was terribly, awfully wrong.

“I need your help, Hux.” Kylo insisted. “To get them all in.”

For a moment, reality hung as if suspended. Hux hadn’t realized he was holding his breath until he exhaled it all in a rush. Kylo wanted his _help_. Wanted him to - to -

The cogs began to turn again, and Hux truly wished they hadn’t. “If I agree,” Hux began slowly, then trailed off. Just the thought of what Kylo wanted was filthy enough, acting on it was a bit nauseating. That was the unsettling quiver in his stomach, Hux was sure of it.

After a long, numb moment, it occurred to Hux that the resulting shame and awkwardness from this misadventure could be incentive enough for Kylo to finally leave his ship. He thought about never having to clean up after Kylo’s messes, never having to budget for the inevitable repairs. Never running into him in the officer’s training suite after one of his fits, never working off their anger on the sparring mat. Never again feeling that exultant rush from pinning a larger man to the ground. Never feeling the electric shock of Kylo’s erection through his shorts, hot and hard against his own, or the searing embarrassment of thrusting down before he remembered himself. Never again leaving Kylo there, flushed and desperate and almost - almost beautiful.  

“I do this,” Hux advised, the words coming slow, “and things are going to be different. Very - different. You do know that?”

“That’s why you have to,” Kylo answered, now frighteningly earnest. “That’s why you’re here with me.”

“Oh,” Hux said, more of an exhalation than a proper word. Hux was sure he had never felt more lost, but he was also certain that no one had ever looked at him the way that Kylo was looking at him right now. It was dizzying. It was more than a little terrifying.

The air was too close, too warm. It felt like Kylo’s words traveled to him through a viscous syrup. His thoughts slid away from him, scattering like insects. Things were about to get very, very weird, but for the life of him, Hux couldn’t remember why he had ever objected. The fetid mist pressed in on him like a living thing, and Hux could almost feel damp tendrils combing through his thoughts. His ribs were too tight, his pulse too loud, and there was nothing else in the known universe he wanted more than to do what Kylo asked of him.

“You want me to pry you open,” he said a bit thickly, reaching out to grasp Kylo’s chin in his hand. “Want me to stretch you so wide that you can take them, one after another, while that thing up there watches?” The words felt strange on his tongue, but Kylo’s mouth dropped open and his breaths came shallow.

“Want me to keep going until I've pushed you to your very limit, until you're completely full, and can't take any more? Until you're swollen and aching and begging me to stop?” Kylo's eyes slid shut. He exhaled a shaky breath.

“Please,” he said. “Hux, please.”  

“All right,” Hux answered softly. “Since you asked so nicely.” Stepping in close, he unfastened Kylo’s cloak and gently pulled it off his shoulders. Kylo’s gaze followed him as he laid the soaked fabric out over the warm stone table like a blanket.

“Have to start somewhere, don’t we?” Hux asked lightly to cover a sudden jangling of nerves.

Kylo’s hand moved to the saber hilt clipped onto his belt, and set it down on a rock ledge miraculously free of goop. Hux unhooked the clasp and winced when the cinch plopped into the pool below with a loud splash. The sound raised a new wave of scuttling motion in the darkness and Hux suppressed a shiver.

“Don’t worry about the others,” Kylo said. “They won’t interfere.”

“You’d better be right,” Hux warned. “Or I’ll leave you here and let them eat you.” He blinked, something in his mind closing shut around the thought like a trap. No, he thought, of course they wouldn’t. It was just an empty threat. Snoke would never knowingly send them into danger.  

Eying the rest of Kylo’s clothing with disdain, he targeted the overtunic next. He didn’t expect the contact when Kylo took his hand and guided his fingers to hidden catches in the fabric. For a moment they breathed the same air, hot and stagnant, before the tunic fell away. Hux laid it out on the table with the cloak, trying not to think of it as bedding.

“Do you always dress so excessively?” Hux asked when presented with a heavy undercoat beneath the tunic. It was thicker, the fabric folded and stitched to create a sort of shield. He could see the benefits of layering lightweight armor, but in the moment it felt better to fall back on mockery.

“I’ve been known to wear less,” Kylo said, teasing, and Hux squashed thoughts of watching him lift weights in regulation sweats, muscles in his arms bulging and straining with the effort. He focused on unhooking a series of tiny clasps down the center in lieu of making any reply. Hux shoved the coat a bit roughly off Kylo’s shoulders, his arms catching in the long sleeves. Kylo squirmed and worked himself out of it, leaving - _damn_ the stars - another tunic. It was long and sleeveless, the sweat-soaked black fabric falling down in panels just below his waist.

 _Good enough_ , Hux thought with some exasperation, startling when Kylo’s hands moved to the stiff collar of his own jacket. “There’s no need for that,” Hux said, taking a step back - or trying to. Kylo’s grip held firm and he pulled Hux forward.

“You’re too warm,” Kylo reasoned, undoing the snaps and moving on to the catches down the side.

“I’m sorry, did you hear me complain?” Hux asked snappishly, brushing away Kylo’s fingers. He felt feverish, nearly ready to combust beneath his fatigues, but that didn’t mean he had to admit to it. He shook his head, trying to clear it. It was hazy with a filthy melange of brackish air, unknown stench, and fear of being so far underground with only one way back out.  

“Nothing you said out loud,” Kylo answered, moving his hands back to Hux’s shoulders. He squirmed, but didn’t shrug them off. There was something almost soothing about those hands, wasn’t there?     

“This is stupid,” Hux muttered, his face joining the rest of him in purgatory.  

“Do it anyway,” Kylo said, his voice low, leaning in to tug the jacket down his arms. Beneath it were a set of dog tags and a plain white shirt, tight and a bit threadbare. Kylo’s hand slid down his side, and then his thick fingers were toying with his waistband, trying to slip beneath it.

“Stop it,” Hux managed, pushing Kylo away with a firm hand to his chest. “You don’t get to do that.” Weird was one thing, but weird and out of hand was somehow unacceptable. His head swam with the heat. One of them had to keep their right mind, and Hux was trying.  

Kylo’s expression changed, a brief flash of anger breaking through the eerie calm, until Hux’s hands found the ties at his waist. Unknotting and loosening the strings that held up his trousers, Hux shoved them down along with the short pants beneath, leaving it to Kylo to untangle his boots from the bunched fabric. Running one still-gloved hand through his hair, Hux turned his back to Kylo and moved closer to the altar. _Stone_ , he corrected himself. It was just a flattened outcrop, not some sort of purposeful religious device.

Kylo leaned against the outcrop to fumble with the buckles, pulling off each boot with a wet splorch. “Go on then,” Hux commanded without turning fully around. “On the table.” This close to the recess, the air was almost too foul to breathe. Kylo moved quickly, climbing up onto the stone and resting back on his elbows. The strip of fabric from his undertunic covered his groin, but did nothing to conceal his sizeable erection.

 _This is actually happening to me_ , Hux thought, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead. From the back of his mind, something hissed. _Isn’t this what you want? Haven’t you been waiting?_ Hux tried to disagree, he did, but found he couldn’t. It _was_ what he wanted, and more.

The winding tendrils above the stone stirred to life, coiling down to brush against Kylo’s raised knees, his chest, his upturned face. The strange glazed look was back in his eyes as he stared up at the broodmother almost lovingly. It turned Hux’s stomach, and he swatted away an overenthusiastic tentacle creeping across his shoulder.

“Don’t do that,” Kylo said, less a warning than a petulant complaint.

“She doesn’t get to touch me, either,” Hux said decisively, and this time Kylo didn’t argue. The tentacles he’d only just noticed hovering above his head began to recoil, curling their way up toward the ceiling. “It’s not personal,” he muttered in the queen’s direction.

Looking over the nest full of wobbling, gelatinous eggs, Hux frowned. Some were nearly perfect spheres, while others were tapered on one end. Some even seemed to be bonded together, and varied widely in size. He didn’t have the slightest idea what any of that meant. Wrinkling his nose, Hux reached into the pile, more thankful for his gloves than he had ever been. It was a damned shame to ruin them, though necessary. An image of pushing two, even three leather-sheathed fingers into Kylo’s ass rose in his mind, and Hux decided he could have new gloves made.   

 _Start small_ , Hux thought, picking up a few gooey spheres. They were a deep, translucent purple, nearly black in what currently passed for light. Hux sat them down in easy reach on the ledge just above where Kylo rested, watching him with a dreamy sort of eagerness. Hux became aware of other watchers ringing the edges of the room without really seeing them, just dull pinpoints of reflected light from an excessive number of eyes. Swallowing down his discomfort, Hux focused on the task before him. It wasn’t fear, he told himself sternly. That was years ago. Dealt with, over and done.

Hux swiped one finger through the sludge and wiped it down Kylo’s inner thigh. Kylo shivered, closing his eyes briefly before biting his lip. The pale skin darkened slightly along the slick trail, raising gooseflesh to either side. Something stirred in Hux at the sight, primal and cruel. Repeating the gesture, he slid his fingers down to find Kylo’s rim without warning, coating the ring of muscle with warm, wet filth.

Arching his back, Kylo gasped aloud at the unexpected sensation. Hux wondered if it burned. Some part of him hoped it did. Brushing the strip of cloth back, Hux let his dry fingers graze Kylo’s balls, already high and tight. He ran his thumb along the length of Kylo’s swollen cock, eliciting a wanton sound that echoed in the cavernous space. Sliding a brief, reassuring hand across Kylo’s stomach, Hux stepped back and tried very hard not to look up.   

Selecting one of the smaller eggs, Hux rolled it around between his fingers. It was an odd combination of sticky and slick. Reaching down, he wrapped his left arm around around Kylo’s leg below the knee and roughly pulled him forward. The cloth stuck to the stone instead of aiding the motion, and Hux had to lean in more closely than he had intended. Using the position for leverage to hold Kylo steady, Hux pressed the sphere against his entrance. Kylo moaned and threw his head back, striking the platform with a dull and painful thud.

Was this something he’d thought about before? A strange, alien kink he’d indulged in secret? Or was it as new as Hux suspected? There was no denying Kylo’s obvious and delirious enjoyment of the situation, but how much of it was the heat, how much  -

Stop, Hux chided himself, shaking his head to clear the unhelpful thoughts. It didn’t bear thinking about, of course. One way or another, they would deliver the specimens to Snoke as promised. He couldn’t afford to fail this time, neither of them could. The sight of Kylo spread out before him, a willing and eager receptacle, changed Hux’s entire assessment of the mission. Hadn’t the mechanical failure been fortuitous? Hadn’t this been the plan all along?

_Stop thinking. He’s waiting._

Rolling the egg back and forth against Kylo’s skin, Hux gave him a small taste of what he’d be getting before setting it aside. Kylo made a disappointed sound that quickly turned pleased as Hux’s fingers returned, dripping with a fresh coat of slime. Sliding the first digit around the taut, clenched muscle, he urged Kylo on with soft words.

“Relax,” he said, increasing the pressure until Kylo opened to him and his index finger slid quickly inside. Kylo breathed out his name, and Hux swallowed hard, bending his finger slightly and twisting it around. “That’s it, let me in.” Hux focused on working him open, little by little, waiting until Kylo adjusted to the width of one leather-bound finger before adding another. He pushed them apart, widening, stretching, all the better to make room. He was going to need so very, very much room. Pulling out slowly, Hux returned to work both newly slick fingers back inside, repeating the steps, repeating again, again. Kylo drew in a quick breath as Hux crooked the digits slightly, making space for more.

Kylo’s mouth hung open, his head drifting to one side as Hux brushed against the spot that made his fingers clench and claw at the stone. Hux took care to avoid it while scissoring his fingers back and forth, knowing Kylo was waiting for the sensation and denying it. Damp curls clung to his cheeks, falling across his eyes, but Hux could read the tension well enough in his face. He thrust in deep, dragging his thumb across the sensitive skin above. Hux felt his lips curl up as Kylo hissed. It was easy to slide his thumb inside as well, wrenching him wider.

“You’re going to have to take more than that,” Hux urged, rotating his wrist until Kylo groaned and the tension against his knuckles suddenly eased. “Good boy,” Hux murmured, stroking the inside of Kylo’s thigh with his left hand, arm still braced beneath his knee. 

The first egg was almost easy. Hux pulled back his hand, enjoying the betrayed sound that slipped from Kylo’s throat. It wasn’t small, none of them really were, but it seemed like a good place to start. Fitting the narrow end to the red and swollen pucker, Hux circled his entrance, teasing. Kylo groaned, and Hux pushed just the very tip inside before pulling it back out.

“Please,” Kylo begged, shoving his ass closer to the table’s edge. “Want it inside me.”

Something very like a growl clawed its way up Hux’s throat and past his lips. He pushed the egg deeper, feeling Kylo clench around it. It slipped from Hux’s fingers and he guided it the rest of the way in with his thumb. His fingers tingled inside the gloves, moisture seeping through the leather with a lingering burn. Hux thrilled to think of how the gel must feel against bare skin, seeking out the most sensitive places to catch fire. Kylo’s mouth hung open, beautiful and wanton and Hux eagerly pressed his fingers back inside. He urged the egg ever deeper, pausing only when Kylo’s hips snapped up in time with a grunt. Having found the perfect spot, Hux withdrew entirely.

Incoherent sounds fell from Kylo’s lips, a babbling litany of desperation. He rolled his hips forward, eyelids fluttering as he whimpered. When he could tear his eyes away, Hux reached for another, this one more spheroid in shape. A little variety couldn’t hurt. It slid in even easier than the first, and Hux pressed a little harder, encouraged by the shout that Kylo gave when the eggs connected. Kylo’s cock twitched hard, a thin stream of liquid pearling at the top and dripping down along a prominent vein. It gleamed in the sickly light, and for a moment all Hux could think about was taking it into his mouth, licking away every drop and making Kylo scream for more.     

His own erection wanted attention, wanting to be stroked or sucked and swallowed down, but now wasn’t the time. A third egg joined the others, pushing the whole chain farther in. Waves of sensation flooded Hux’s mind and it didn’t occur to him to force them out or wonder at their provenance. The fullness he felt, the stretch, the burn, all of it impossibly belonged to Kylo as it burrowed beneath his skin. Greedily, Hux planned on keeping it.

Feeling around in the nest, Hux’s fingers closed around a larger oval, slightly more solid than the others. It twitched in his hand and he smiled, a warm sense of connection spreading out from his palm and down his arm. “This one is special,” he said, holding it out for Kylo to see. He raised up on his elbows, panting, and regarded Hux with widened eyes.

“Yes,” he agreed, tilting his head back and forth against the stone. “Please, Hux, I need it, need more, don’t stop -”

“Oh, I won’t,” Hux promised, lining up the egg with Kylo’s hole, stretched out and dripping for him. He pushed it in roughly, the egg’s oddly solid core protecting it from the the squeeze. He felt the first egg stick, then make a turn at the bend deep inside. Kylo cried out, the sound abruptly truncated by a sharply inhaled breath. “You liked that, didn’t you?” Hux said, more an assessment than a question. Kylo nodded, thrusting against Hux’s hand where it lingered.

The next was close in size, and Kylo arched his back, hands scrabbling against the stone. He clutched at the fabric of his discarded robes, keening his wordless approval. Hux could feel a rising panic skittering through their shared connection, smothered beneath the weight of pleasure. He paused in his efforts, giving Kylo time to adjust, to accommodate even more without fear. The anxious spark subsided as he gently massaged Kylo’s entrance, stroking one hand down along his inner thigh. When his breaths came slow and deep, Hux decided to see just how far he could push.

A smaller egg from the nest went in next, two spheres bonded together, and Kylo shuddered. Hux watched his eyes roll back, leaving only white in place of pupils blown wide. His cock pulsed, hips beginning to thrust mindlessly as the spheres pushed past his swollen rim. Hux slid one finger between the abused muscle and the egg’s curving boundary, stretching him open farther still. He’d lost track of how many jostled for space inside Kylo’s passage, such unimportant details escaping him in the heady rush of dominance. Kylo had asked for this, sure, but Hux was the one doing all the work.

With the next oval inside came another helpless moan from the willing receptacle spread out before him. Kylo’s heels dug into the altar, his fingers grasping at the ragged edges of the stone. The tang of blood mingled with the hot spice of sweat and the scent of Kylo’s arousal. Without thinking, Hux leaned forward between Kylo’s legs and gave his cock a slow, lingering stroke. It jerked in his hand and Hux slid back down the meaty length of it, twisting his hand around the base. Kylo couldn’t seem to keep still, thrusting up against Hux’s gloved fist while his mouth hung open, puffing out short, harsh breaths.        

It was difficult to pull away, but something drove Hux to keep going, to thrust his hand back into the warm, gently undulating clutch and choose another. Kylo whined at the loss of sensation, then cried out in protest when Hux pressed the next gooey sphere against his taut scrotum and rolled it down.  

“Hux,” he gasped out. “I can’t, please, it’s too much!”

“I thought you wanted more?” Hux asked, a cruel mockery in his tone.

“I did - I do - but it hurts, feels like I’m on fire. I can’t take any more, I -” Tears slid down Kylo’s face, mingling with a heavy sheen of sweat.

“Shh,” Hux whispered. “You can.” Kylo whimpered and writhed on the stone. “Just a few more,” Hux insisted, rolling the egg against his much-abused entrance. He ran his left hand over Kylo’s belly, swollen and distended from the load he carried. If Hux pressed down, he could feel the curves of each egg beneath his fingers. His cock throbbed as he imagined holding Kylo down and thrusting against the bumps and ridges until he spilled across them, hot and thick.  

“Yes,” Kylo begged, the word little more than a throaty grunt.

The idea steadily gained traction in Hux’s mind, more important than the number of eggs, more important even than keeping them warm and safe. Hux made one final push, the last sphere glowing dimly in the mold-light as he seated it within its imperfect cradle. Kylo pushed himself up on his elbows with a pained groan and shuffled back as far as he could manage. Leaning in, Hux rucked up the fabric of his undertunic, roughly shoving it up Kylo’s chest and out of the way. He crawled forward, undoing the buttons of his trousers and wrenching them down around his hips, hearing the fabric stretch and tear. Kylo reached forward, but couldn’t close the distance. Hux felt invisible hands tearing at the waistband of his pants and couldn’t comply fast enough.    

Hovering over the altar, Hux braced himself on one elbow while his left hand claimed Kylo by the wrist and pinned him down. Rolling his hips forward, he slid against the raised and swollen skin, rutting into the gap between between Kylo’s groin and thigh. Kylo brought one shaking arm up to wrap around him, holding Hux in place. His hand spread out against the small of Hux’s back, fingers digging in against his spine, and Hux arched into the pain.

A light stroke traveled down his back, offering soothing reassurance. Something brushed across his shoulders with a slight tickle. When he felt a gentle caress against his ass, Hux welcomed it and did not shy away. The touches grew bolder, testing, exploring. Somewhere, very far back in Hux’s mind, he knew them for what they were, knew their origin and goal. Those thoughts were easy to push aside in the hot rush of _want_ setting every part of him aflame.

Beneath him, Kylo seemed to glow. A gentle blue light reflected off the shallow pool, surrounding and sustaining, offering a strange sense of comfort in the shadows. It seemed to infuse every part of him. Dipping his head to lick at the hollows of Kylo’s collarbone, Hux relished the taste of salt and musk. He nipped and sucked his way along the taut muscles in Kylo’s neck, taking his earlobe into his mouth and tugging at it with his teeth. Kylo pressed up against him, his cock hard and hot and slick.

Hux snapped his hips forward, bearing down on Kylo’s swollen abdomen. Kylo turned his head and nuzzled against Hux’s cheek, whispering delirious praise into the curve of his ear. He dragged his hand up Hux’s spine and buried it in his hair, soft strokes becoming needy tugs. Hux moaned at the sharp pinpricks of pain across his scalp and Kylo only pulled harder. Giving into the insistent pressure, Hux drew back to look. The desire he could see in Kylo’s face traveled straight down to his dick.

“Want you to fuck me,” Kylo breathed, the sound desperate and low. Hux slowed his thrusts, staring at Kylo in shock.

“I can’t,” Hux protested. “There’s - it’s too much, there’s no room.”

“Please,” Kylo begged. “She wants you to. I need it, please Hux, need you inside me.”  

The leathery strokes along his skin grew more insistent, as if offering encouragement. Hux watched a long, dextrous tentacle descend to wrap around Kylo’s wrist, nudging his fingers away. He gasped in surprise when something wriggled into the cleft between his cheeks and teased at his rim. The curves and valleys below Kylo’s stomach pressed against Hux’s length, stimulating, massaging, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted to be buried deep inside, feel the eggs sliding against him without any barriers between. Wanted to give the eggs what they needed, give Kylo what he needed, wanted to finish what they came here to do.  

“All right,” he whispered, levering himself up on his knees. He couldn’t resist a quick swirl of his tongue around a nipple as he withdrew, grazing it with his teeth. Kylo made a pleased sound that trailed off into a hum. Crawling backward down the stone, Hux carefully slid down onto the rocks below.

Another tentacle uncoiled and slithered down, twining around Kylo’s left wrist. Hux watched Kylo relax into the restriction as it pulled his arm back to join the other, still held above his head. Sliding one hand along Kylo’s leg, Hux urged his knees to bend. Kylo obliged, and Hux hooked his arms beneath them, pulling him into just the right place. After giving Kylo’s cock another firm stroke, Hux slid his hand slowly down, cupping his balls and rubbing them gently between his fingers. Kylo squirmed, his tongue slipping out to wet his upper lip.

Tracing a slow circle around Kylo’s entrance, Hux slipped two fingers inside. Kylo made a harsh sound at the intrusion. Hux continued to push, scissoring back and forth to make what room he could. Sliding his fingers in and out, the leather dragged along the sides, soaked through from the stinging jelly. Too focused on stretching Kylo to his very limit, Hux didn’t stop to consider the consequences of slicking his cock with the viscous stuff until the sensation nearly drove him to his knees. He ached and throbbed, cock twitching as he lined up with Kylo’s ass.

The first thrust alone was almost too much. Hux leveraged himself at the perfect angle with his hold on Kylo’s right leg, sinking in slowly just past the tip. He pulled back with a rough, wet sound, looking up at Kylo for his reaction. Kylo’s mouth hung open, his chest rising and falling with heaving breaths. Hux slid his hand up to stroke along Kylo’s inner thigh and down to his groin with a light touch. Penetration was just this side of painful, but the pleasure overrode any further objections as he slid deeper with a second thrust, and a third. Repositioning the arm hooked beneath Kylo’s knee, Hux urged him wordlessly to lift and fold his legs back, granting him better access. Kylo got as far as he could with his arms still held above his head, his protruding abdomen limiting just how far he could bend. Hux hooked Kylo’s left leg over his shoulder and gave himself a quick stroke, biting down hard on his lip. This time, when he slid inside, Hux didn’t stop. The eggs rolled and gave way, surrounding and caressing him as Kylo spasmed and clenched. It was terrifying and unreal and he couldn’t stop now if his life depended on it.

Time slowed, or sped up, Hux honestly couldn’t tell. His place in the universe was unstable, his mind no longer his own. A second perspective crowded out his own thoughts, weaving an agonizing counterpoint to the burning ecstasis crawling through his flesh. He watched Kylo watching him, saw himself wrecked and writhing through Kylo’s eyes. Hux felt the creeping tendrils of a cold, alien presence exploring through his senses and screamed for it to get out, _get_ _out_.

Hux’s thoughts gave a sickening lurch. Maybe it wasn’t all in his head. He shuddered at a wet, leathery touch along the side of his neck and raised a hand to it, feeling only the stinging slap of his palm against his own skin. He saw through six eyes at once, he saw through no eyes at all. His skin was burning, peeling. Even the corners of his mind had caught fire. Maybe, Hux thought, maybe he was just screaming, now.

Salt sank into his tongue from Kylo’s sweat. A redolent mist, sickly sweet, rose from the nest, coating his hands and dripping from the altar. The heady spice of musk warred with acrid bile in a dizzying mix, an assault on his senses. He knew Kylo’s name, but not his own. He knew the name Kylo wished he could forget, felt it slip from his mouth and burrow between his ribs. His hips bucked forward mindlessly, plowing into Kylo, stretching, breaking, until he felt something burst.

A screech filled his mind, bleeding out into the air. He tried to stop. Kylo laughed and hooked his right leg around Hux’s hip, pulling him deeper, urging him on. “Don’t stop,” he whispered, the words sounding loud in Hux’s ear. “It’s all right.”

“I thought,” Hux panted. “I thought we needed them.” Skittering, on the stones behind him. Scratching, tapping, on the stone above them. Pincers clacking in a round.  

“One less to compete,” Kylo said, grinning horribly up at their overseer. She made a sound like the rush of air through a failed pressure seal, with all that implied behind it.

“I don’t understand,” Hux said, but he did, he did. “I don’t want -”      

“Stars, Hux, just fuck me!” Kylo thrust back against him and Hux’s palm slid down over his hips, pressing hard against the stone. The layers of cloth beneath Kylo had shifted and even torn away in places. Hux could feel Kylo’s back scraping against the altar and hissed at the pain. Kylo seemed eager to demonstrate that every nerve stripped raw was merely a gateway to something immense, something shattering. Hux did as he was told, losing himself in it. Deep inside, the head of his cock slid against one egg that seemed lodged in place, and he rubbed against it again and again.

A hard spasm constricted the muscles around him, and Hux opened stinging eyes he didn’t remember closing. A thin tentacle had reached down to curl around Kylo’s cock, stroking and squeezing until he climaxed, mouth gaping, no sound escaping from already tortured lungs. Hux watched him spill, felt a whistling hum from the Queen and watched the tentacle draw back, dripping.         

Hux told himself he would have plenty of time later to feel ashamed of the noises he was making. He throbbed and jerked inside Kylo’s passage, gripped by clenching muscles, and Hux let out a rough shout. He was close, and Kylo just kept bearing down, watching him now, meeting him thrust for thrust. Hux let his eyes roll back, feeling the pressure build and somehow still saw it when Kylo bit his lip. All that mattered was the slick, raw heat, the eggs rolling along his cock, the one that caught just beneath his head and seemed to shiver against the taut line of muscle stretched out to its very limit. When he came it barreled through him like a shot, firing, repeating. His hips snapped, skin slapping loudly against skin. It went on and on in a rush while Hux felt outside himself, awash in a tangled, radiant mess of sensation.

When he came back to himself enough, Hux slid a hand up the hot, slick skin beside Kylo’s cock, soothing. Even spent, lying half-limp across his stomach, it was still impressive. Hux knew they were here for a reason, knew their mission wasn’t finished yet, but he wanted to reach down and stroke it back to hardness, wrap his lips around it, take it all the way down to the base.

“You can have it whenever you want it,” Kylo said, still breathless and grinning.

“Later,” Hux said, pressing a kiss to the inside of Kylo’s thigh. “Definitely, yes - later.” When his cock felt soft enough, he pulled back to let it slide out from between the eggs, leaving a wet trail of slime mixed with his own seed. Kylo groaned at the loss of it, and Hux moved his hand down to slip two fingers around the rim, pushing gently inside. Kylo sighed, taking long, deep breaths. Hux lifted Kylo’s leg off his shoulder and settled it back down against the stone, running his free hand over the bumps in Kylo’s skin. “They’re ours now,” he said, imagining their shapes pressed against one another deep within Kylo.

“Yes,” Kylo said softly, happily. “But we have to -” he broke off, something visibly constricting in his gut. “It hurts,” he said with a hint of wonder. “Hux, they hurt.”

“I know,” Hux said, although he didn’t, not really. “It’ll be all right. We just have to get back to the ship, then everything will be fine.”

“The ship,” Kylo murmured, struggling to stay awake despite tiny jumps and shudders in his gut. “You’re going to have to help me.” 

Wrapping an arm around his back, Hux helped him sit up. Kylo groaned, eyes squeezing shut, and Hux couldn’t keep from running lightly one hand lightly over the new shapes the eggs made in this position. The oddly possessive feeling that had taken hold in his chest only moments before seemed to grow, and he squeezed Kylo’s shoulder, guiding him down off the altar.

Finding the scattered layers of Kylo’s robes was no easy task, most of them soaked and draped across rocks identical in color to the cloth. Kylo struggled into as many as he could manage, his movements limited by all that he carried. Hux dragged his trousers back up, wet and filthy, and fastened his belt. He retrieved his jacket, thankfully still dry, from where it had fallen against the cavern wall and returned to Kylo’s side.

A legion of multifaceted eyes regarded them from the shadows. His arm around Kylo, Hux raised his chin and stared them down, wishing he knew where his blaster had ended up. They ringed the pool, seeming to cluster near the only way out. A loud chittering echoed through the cavern, originating from somewhere high above, and Hux steadfastly refused to look up. A stray thought caught between his teeth and he worried at it. When had she - it - become worrisome?

Despite the chill it sent down straight his spine, the sound had the desired effect on their guards. The creatures closest to the entrance hastily made way, chitinous limbs scrabbling across the stones. How had they stayed here so long? A low hum reverberated off the walls, sending tiny ripples across the water, and Hux had never wanted to be anywhere else quite so much or so quickly.

Well, almost never. Hux tamped down on the memories trying to rise, memories that might as well have belonged to someone else, they were so distant. His head was still hazy, but he could feel another dark space, cold instead of warm, and a hundred tiny, silken strands brushing across his skin. Remember the boys who chased him there, into the tiny crawlspace, to hide. He felt a legion of imaginary welts rising across his skin, itchy and stinging. “They can’t hurt you,” came a whisper close to his ear. “You’re not there anymore, they’re gone.”

“I know,” Hux answered, locking it away. He wasn’t sure when he might have been angry with Kylo for skimming his thoughts, but he knew it had existed. It seemed like such a small thing. Staring straight ahead, he supported Kylo as best he could through the steam and mire, jumping when the nearly forgotten ‘saber flew from across the room into Kylo’s hand.

“Sorry,” Kylo murmured, and Hux did his best to laugh it off.

The path to the surface was steep, and slippery with moss. Hux had to stop more than once to adjust Kylo’s weight on his arm. They would stop for Kylo to lean against the walls, to catch his breath, to wrap his arms around his middle and forget to breathe all over again. Hux encouraged him, whispering, pressing soft kisses to his hair. “It’s all right,” he said. “It’s all right, we’re going to get them home.”

Kylo shivered in the heat and nodded, always putting one foot in front of the other, always moving. Loyal, Hux thought. That’s what they were. They had precious cargo to keep safe. Finally, the caverns gave way to a dim, wintery light, and Hux blinked at the contrast. The shuttle - now he remembered. The shuttle was an hour’s walk across craggy, difficult terrain, and Kylo would never make it. Climbing up a ways over the cave entrance, Hux spied a low plateau that might serve for a landing pad, if he could just get Kylo up the slope.

Taking off his jacket, Hux wrapped it around Kylo’s shoulders and helped him sit down against a curving section of wall. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he reassured him, or attempted to. Kylo’s face was a study in martyrdom, pain mixed with a sort of beatific enlightenment. He nodded, and clutched Hux’s jacket tight. Leaving him in the humid dark was one of the hardest things Hux had ever had to do.

 

Hours later, Kylo was bundled in the shuttle’s one fold-down bed, racked with pain and utterly miserable. Hux could feel it, as though from a phantom limb. Kylo howled, one hand curled in a fist to strike the wall.

“Not much longer,” Hux said, leaving the pilot’s seat to crouch beside the bunk. “We’re almost there. You’re doing so well, Kylo,” he assured him, stroking the hair back from his face.  

On the long trek back to the shuttle, a seed of doubt had sprouted in his mind, only spreading its roots the farther away he traveled. A fog lifted from his mind as the cold sunk deep into his bones. Leaving his jacket behind had been foolish. What had he been thinking? The phrase resonated, playing back on a loop.

The entire situation - the things he had done - they seemed dim, half-remembered in the stark winter light. What had come over him to agree to such a thing? Still, something else burrowed beneath his questions, whispering _it’s all right,_ telling him _you’ve done well._ It seemed unquestionable, a foregone conclusion as he marched, keeping time with the blink of the shuttle’s tracker.

It took less time than before, travelling in a straight line instead of searching for an entrance to the subterranean depths. Kylo was barely conscious when he returned, the trip up to the shuttle difficult, and Hux was exhausted by the time he finally sat down at the controls. The autopilot set, he dozed until awoken by Kylo’s frantic cries.

Kylo’s face was grey, his body restless. He muttered nonsense syllables, eyes wide and glassy, staring at something Hux couldn’t see. A fearful sort of tenderness gripped Hux’s chest, and he clutched Kylo’s hand to keep it from pounding at the wall. Kylo grimaced and curled in on himself, tears sliding down his cheeks.

“It’ll be all right,” Hux soothed. “Everything will be all right.”

“You don’t understand,” Kylo croaked. “They’re moving. Hux, they’re moving and I can’t make them stop!”

Hux drew in a sharp breath. How was that even possible? Then he remembered the sudden twitch of one of the eggs in his hand, the one he’d dropped in surprise. Of course they were moving. Kylo was warm, a tight, nurturing creche for that filthy beast’s spawn. Hux thought he might be sick.

Reaching out a hand, Hux slipped it beneath the hodge podge layers of cloth and felt the curves protruding from Kylo’s abdomen. They were larger than he remembered, and very definitely shifting beneath his skin. Suppressing a mounting panic, he stroked his hand across Kylo’s stomach.

“They’re not,” he lied, hoping Kylo was too delirious to tell. “You’ve been through a lot, is all. Try to get some rest.”  

Kylo watched his face intently, and Hux schooled his features into a calm mask. His thoughts felt - sharp, felt more his own than they had since breaching the surface of the moon, and that set off alarm bells in his mind. He already struggled to remember what led them to the point that resulted in this disaster.

The proximity notice began to sound, a steady beeping pulse from the front cabin, and Hux squeezed Kylo’s hand before returning to the controls. He sent the docking code and felt the tractor beam latch onto the shuttle with a lurch. Hux took a deep, steadying breath and weighed his options.

 

Half a day and two ruined medical droids later, Hux felt he had the situation relatively under control. Kylo had nearly destroyed half the med bay, but it could be repaired. Hux had transferred him, still unconscious, to his quarters in a hoverchair, ordering the hallways clear. Settling him on the bed, Hux had paced from his desk to the couch and back again, trying to catch up on messages and reports. It was useless, distracted by worry and the shadow cast on his mind by Kylo’s restless dreams.

At last giving in to exhaustion, Hux moved to the bed, lying just along the edge. He reached out more than once, only to pull his hand back before touching Kylo’s skin. It didn’t feel right, the possessiveness crouching in his chest not entirely his own. He slept fitfully, dreaming about a close, dark space filled with a skittering kind of terror and woke up gasping.

He gave up and took a shower to wash away the sensation of tiny silken strands clinging to his skin. Pulling an undershirt over his head, Hux ran his fingers through his hair and decided to leave it alone. He’d left strict orders not to be disturbed for the foreseeable future, deliberately seeding a rumor that they were both under quarantine. When he emerged from the refresher, Kylo was struggling to sit up on the edge of the bed.

“Well, look who’s conscious,” Hux said, forcing a flippant tone.

“Hux?” Kylo asked, clearly confused. “What happened?” He shifted on the bed and instantly regretted it, biting down on his lip at unexpected pain. Hux could feel a dull echo through a connection he wasn’t sure he still wanted.

“Did something happen, were we attacked?” Kylo eyed him warily. “Why am I in your quarters? What’s -” Kylo gasped and nearly doubled over in agony.  

Hux froze in the doorway to the refresher, clenching his fist with the shared pain. How was it possible that Hux could still feel his wounds, but Kylo couldn’t remember a thing? In all the scenarios that had played out in his head while he held Kylo down, while the medical droids stretched and pushed and pulled - this had never been one of them. Hux swallowed hard, wondering if he had it in him to lie. _Of course you do_ , he told himself. This ridiculous, lingering affection wasn’t even real, just the forceful suggestion of an alien predator.

He must have remained silent for too long. An angry presence barged into his mind, rooting around in his memories like a whistle-pig after a worm. Hux could see his own thoughts, hear the images seared into his brain from their recent experience. The pain narrowed to a sharp point of white heat, surgical in its precision, before a hasty withdrawal left Hux reeling. As though something within him had been punctured, memories spilled over and out of him like water past a failing dam. Now Kylo knew. He knew everything, and Hux had no defense against it.

“Dammit, Kylo!” Hux grimaced, clutching the side of his head with one hand, as if that might help. “You had no right -”

“I have every right!” Kylo countered, equally furious. “How dare you? You would have just let me forget!”

“An entire cycle’s worth of trauma and delirium? Yes, I would have happily let you forget that experience.” Hux spat out the words, covering his concern with bitterness.

Kylo stared at him for so long, Hux thought he might turn to ashes on the spot. Eventually, he rose to his feet with a wince and turned away, crossing the room to the incubator sat against the wall. Crouching down with obvious effort, he pressed several buttons in sequence and waited for the beeps and whines to resolve. The crate opened slowly, a tiny puff of white mist slipping out around the edges. Hux watched as he examined the contents with a clinical expression, reaching in only to pull back sharply.

“The medical droid cleaned them up,” Hux offered, knowing Kylo would hear the lie in his voice. He had washed and wiped them down himself, heavy gloves between his skin and the intoxicating sludge. Beneath it, they shone with an opalescent clarity. Held up to the refresher light, each sphere seemed spun from crystalline filaments, refracting and focusing the ambient glow. They were beautiful and Hux couldn’t stand to look at them.

A slight smile was the only indication that Kylo had heard him at all. He withdrew the largest egg from the makeshift cradle, turning it at different angles for a better view. “It’s grown,” Kylo observed with some surprise, and Hux could only nod. Kylo’s vision overlayed his own for a disorienting moment, observing the creature suspended within. A chitinous wonder of articulation and serpentine coils, she floated serene in her pleochroic sea. A bed of tiny tourmaline weeds waited below to cradle her as she grew.

“A new queen,” Kylo said. “No wonder she wanted us to take them. This little girl would have only become a threat in time.”

“Little girl,” Hux scoffed. “Listen to yourself. It’s an animal, and still an embryo besides.” A hot twinge of something unfamiliar snapped in his gut and Hux felt oddly chastised.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” Kylo said, slowly standing to focus his attention back on Hux. “You want distance from this, from what we did.”   

“I would imagine we both do,” Hux said. “It was a bloody nightmare. But no, you couldn’t leave it be. You had to go digging around in my head!”

“It was worth it,” Kylo argued, four insistent words like hammers against Hux’s skull. He didn’t know what he was saying. He couldn’t.

“For Snoke?” Hux asked, reaching for anger to shore him up in an argument he was swiftly losing. “Anything to not fail him again?”

“No,” Kylo answered decisively, and Hux nearly took a step back. “To remember. To not forget you.”

Hux stared, breath catching in his throat. The resulting scoff still couldn’t cover up his surprise at Kylo’s pronouncement. “You could hardly forget about me on my own ship.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Kylo corrected, taking a step forward. Every line in his body radiated weariness. “Whatever else happened down there, you helped me, stayed with me, through all of that - madness.” His gaze was open and earnest and it hit Hux squarely in the chest.

“Yes, well,” Hux stumbled over a mess of words that all tried to hide from him at once. “It was my fault in the first place, wasn’t it?”

Kylo narrowed his eyes, tilting his head in confusion. “There’s no one at fault. I asked for this.”

“Did you?” Hux questioned, letting some of the fear creep back in. “Or was it that thing, making you a - a willing vessel, for her spawn? I wasn’t sure, Kylo, but I wanted it anyway!” He stared down at a clump of dirt on the floor, scuffing at it with his boot. “It makes me sick.” Hux turned away, unable to face the rising anger on Kylo’s face. He slumped against the wall, pressing his forearm to the cool metal, one hand clenched in a fist.  

“She was in your head, too,” Kylo insisted, taking a quick step forward only to be checked by a wince. His lips set in a thin line, he crossed the room before Hux could object and pressed his palm a few inches from Hux’s face, looming over him. “I felt it. I can still feel it. She wasn’t exactly gentle.”

“Neither was I,” Hux barked. Two days ago, he might have relished the thought of Snoke’s chosen warrior brought so low, might have delighted in his shame and misfortune. Now - everything was upside down. It made him dizzy, not knowing the origin of his own emotions, not able to ignore them the way he would prefer. It was uncomfortable, and try as he might to force them back, there was one nagging thought that wouldn’t let go.

“I hurt you,” Hux said more quietly, the words weighing down his voice like lead. He wished it didn’t matter.

“I wanted you to.” Kylo’s voice went soft, almost reassuring. Hux couldn’t help turning toward the sound of it, hating himself for it when Kylo wrapped strong fingers around his chin to tilt it up. He leaned in close, dark hair falling across Hux’s cheek. When Kylo rested against Hux’s forehead, a stream of sensations bled into his mind. He could feel again the smooth stone beneath his back, saw it as Kylo understood it, as meant for a sacred offering. Kylo’s understanding of the beast began to filter through.

Generations of queens had lured in any travelers that passed close enough, implanting their spawn in whatever cavity they could breach. Hux shuddered hard at the idea and suddenly the stream reversed its flow, showing Hux the way he had looked between Kylo’s raised knees, hungry and wild. It pressed further, letting him hear Kylo’s thoughts - desperate and rapturous, when he was thinking at all. It was surreal and overwhelming, and suddenly Hux wanted none of it. Unsteady, he gripped Kylo’s arms and sank back against the wall for support. Stars, why couldn’t they both just forget?

“Is that really what you want?” Kylo asked, his tone neutral. “Because I won’t be gentle, either. I’ll rip the memories from you. You’ll feel a void for the rest of your days and never know why. It will likely drive you -”

Hux silenced him with two fingers pressed firmly to his lips. “Dramatist,” he muttered. “All you had to say was that you’d prefer dealing with our little indiscretion instead of falling back on cowardice.”

“Is that what it was,” Kylo mused, one corner of his mouth quirking up in a smile.

“Oh, who the hell knows anymore,” Hux said in exasperation, letting his hand fall away. “I can’t sort out what I think from what _she_ was thinking, from what you were thinking, it’s all mixed up and I don’t know what to do with it!”

“Don’t be ashamed of what you wanted,” Kylo said, almost pleading. “I’m not. I could feel her in my mind, feel what she needed, but she didn’t force me to do anything.”   

 _What she needed_ , Hux repeated to himself, sparking another terrible thought. He gave it voice before he could think better of it. “There’s no way that they could - that I could have -”

Kylo raised one eyebrow in a look that clearly questioned his intelligence. Hux flushed and glanced away. Kylo guided him back with a hand below his chin. “It isn’t possible,” he said gently. “They’re a parthenogenic species, anyway.”

“Then why did she want me to -” Hux cut himself off, gesturing vaguely.

“It’s possible that she was trying to foster a sense of attachment,” Kylo said. “She would have seen so many worlds in our minds, so many opportunities to spread and thrive. Ensuring the eggs left with us was simply answering a biological imperative. Either that or - well,” Kylo continued, a bit uncomfortably. “She may have simply amplified what I wanted.”  

“What you wanted?” Hux repeated, wincing at his own curiosity.

Kylo’s eyes drifted shut for a moment, and this close, Hux could feel him breathe. “It wasn’t the first time I’d thought about it. What it might be like.”

“Oh,” Hux said, more a swift exhale than an actual word. “About - about so many, er, things? Or about this, you know, specifically?” It was ridiculous how his tongue danced around the words after actively participating in the experience.

“Being a host,” Kylo answered, taking a small step back. A growing wonder covered any embarrassment in his voice, but he kept his eyes on the floor. “Sometimes just the act of it, of being filled by something so alien, so _other_.”  

A sly grin transformed his face before Hux could stop it. “What sort of holoporn have _you_ been watching?” he asked, and Kylo swatted ineffectually at him.

“I dreamed about it once,” Kylo said. “Dreamed about carrying a life inside me, but not my own kind. It was almost a nightmare, but when I woke up it wouldn’t leave my mind. I knew it wasn’t possible for me, but that didn’t keep me from daydreaming about it, from fantasizing.” He glanced at Hux, clearly trying to gauge his reaction.    

“I don’t understand the desire,” Hux answered the silent question, and the disappointment he felt from Kylo settled in the pit of his stomach. “I think because the thought of anything alien inside of me registers as a sort of wrongness.” Disappointment was replaced by a searing sense of shame and Kylo took another step away.

“That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t - that is, if you wanted to, well.” Hux stumbled over the words. There had to be a way, he thought. There had to be a way to _use_ this.

 _You were beautiful_ , Hux thought quickly in Kylo’s direction, unable to voice the pronouncement aloud. _So full, and round, and maybe I can understand that well enough._ The sentiment bordered on truth, and Hux had to look away.

“Do you remember what I said to you?” Kylo posed the question slowly.

“You said quite a lot of things,” Hux answered with a wry smile.

“Before you took my cloak,” Kylo clarified. “I said that it had to be you.”

Hux had been halfway hoping Kylo didn’t remember that part. He risked a pointed thought, refusing to shape the question with his lips. _Why?_

“I never could have trusted anyone else,” Kylo explained. “Supreme Leader knew that, and so he sent you with me.”

Hux thought about what Kylo had shown him, the altar, the offerings, a ‘biological imperative.’ Snoke had known what would happen. When they delivered the eggs, he would know what _had_ happened. He had provided for his protégé by supplying him with Hux. He might as well get used to feeling sick, Hux thought. It seemed to be a regular occurrence.

“Does that embarrass you?” Kylo asked.

“Yes,” Hux spit out, the affection and concern he’d been feeling abruptly draining away. “It certainly does. Just because I follow his orders doesn’t mean he has any business nosing around in my sex life.”

“That’s not the only reason,” Kylo said, his gaze settling somewhere off to Hux’s right. “You said it would change things, and I wanted it to.”

Hux stared. How strange, that he hadn’t seen it in the way Kylo looked at him, hadn’t heard it when he spoke. Something in him hardened, sharpening its claws. This weakness had been there for the taking, all along.

“I didn’t want you to know, before,” Kylo interrupted his thoughts. “I didn’t think you would reciprocate, and it would only have made things - awkward, between us.”    

He was right, of course. It wasn’t the sort of thing Hux had ever made time for. He’d been too busy, too distracted, and after the loss of Starkiller, too miserable. Physical attraction had warred with jealousy and ire, alongside their constant struggle for ascendancy. It just hadn’t seemed practical to be anything else.

Now, Hux knew better. Despite Snoke’s apparent intentions for him to feel subservient, to be at Kylo’s beck and call like some sort of dog, Hux saw a gleaming opportunity. Kylo might be well suited to command among his inferiors, a terror on the bridge and on the battlefield, but now he had revealed a different face. Too trusting, he had shown Hux a side of himself that longed to be mastered, a deep need to be controlled. There could be nothing more practical for Hux in the face of their leader’s disappointment than to stand side by side with him, knowing which of them held the leash.  

The decision made itself. Hux smiled, reaching out a hand to stroke Kylo’s cheek. “There’s no need for any awkwardness,” he said, watching a spark of hope flicker in Kylo’s gaze. “Nor shame. I can give you what you want.”

Kylo drew in a quick breath, his tongue flicking out to lick his lips. “You would do that for me?”

“Come here,” Hux said, sliding his hand down Kylo’s neck to rest on his chest. Kylo took a hesitant step forward to bring them close, and Hux let his hand wander south, settling on Kylo’s hip. “I’d do a lot of things for you,” he said, canting his voice low.

He could feel Kylo’s excitement pressing against his thoughts, the lightest touch of phantom hands sliding down his back. His eyes wandered over Kylo’s face, drinking in the admiration and arousal on display. Hux felt powerful, felt appreciated for the first time since everything went to hell. In the moment it didn’t matter that the loss of everything he’d worked so hard to build could be blamed squarely on the man in front of him. Kylo’s lips were too full, too red where he had been biting them in uncertainty, and Hux leaned in to capture them in a kiss.

It seemed impossible that they had never done this before. Kylo made a small, needy sound and sank into Hux’s embrace. Hux parted his lips with his tongue, exploring, tasting. It was a heady rush, feeling his carefully metered desire mingling with feedback from another mind. He lost himself in it, just a little, running one hand through Kylo’s hair.

“Hux,” Kylo breathed after Hux pulled away. “I want -”

“Shh,” Hux soothed, taking Kylo’s face in his hands. “You need to rest, and heal.” His own skin was still raw and angry from the alien sludge; Hux didn’t want to think too hard about what Kylo must be experiencing.

“Can I stay?” Kylo sounded so eager it was almost embarrassing.

Hux wasn’t accustomed to sharing his bed with anyone, but allowing it - this time - seemed like the strategic choice. He nodded, stroking one knuckle down Kylo’s cheek. This felt like an acceptable concession, felt like a proper channel for the whirling mess of impulses crowding his otherwise organized thoughts.

It was a dangerous game to play, but Hux didn’t plan on losing. If he didn’t know already, Hux was certain Kylo would eventually figure out he was being used. That was a bridge Hux told himself firmly they could cross when they came to it, when his position was greater, his hold that much stronger.

Kylo sat down gingerly on the mattress, pulling the covers back up. He looked hopefully back at Hux, who had moved to reseal the incubator, suppressing a shudder at its contents. Hux added the eggs and the creature who produced them to the long list of reasons he owed Snoke some payback.

Still, he thought, watching Kylo settle in, rolling carefully on his side, Hux couldn’t be too upset. He’d faced down a shameful, secret fear and come out alive with a powerful new ally. One who seemed to want him, not for his connections, not for his own power, but from some genuine sort of affection. That was new, and strange, and extremely flattering.

Pulling back the sheet, Hux slid in next to Kylo and turned to face him, studying the jagged line that marred his features. He reached out and gently traced the smooth, red skin with one finger, provoking a shiver.

“I won’t fail again,” Kylo promised feverishly. “Not like that.”

“Of course you won’t,” Hux reassured him. “I won’t let you.”    

  


**Author's Note:**

> **Dubious consent warning for strong mental suggestion leading to oviposition and rough sex. Consent is later confirmed, but dubious at the time. PLEASE tell me if I need to add any additional tags.
> 
> Dear fandom: I'm really sorry about this. 
> 
> I have a [tumblr](http://sithrabbit.tumblr.com), come tell me how gross I am.


End file.
